Midwest Academy
Body
The Midwest Academy is the training institution founded in 1973 by storied US organiser Heather Booth and the pioneers of the Industrial Areas Foundation’s training programme, now headquartered in Chicago [source: midwest-academy]. The Academy’s training method is designed to give organisers the tools to turn their passion into actions that build power and result in progressive change; the Strategy. Power. Justice. tagline captures the curriculum’s three-part framing [source: midwest-academy]. The Midwest Academy also hosts a job board for positions in the organising world, which is one of the standard US recruitment channels for progressive-organising jobs [source: midwest-academy].
Coverage: the Academy’s training curriculum teaches the strategy chart (a worksheet for placing a campaign on the reform-vs.-radical, immediate-vs.-long-range axes), the cutting the issue diagnostic (a way to specify the demand precisely), the power vs. power analysis (the basis of Alinsky-tradition organising), the accountability session meeting structure, and the organising vs. mobilising distinction; these are all foundational to US community-organising pedagogy [source: midwest-academy]. The Academy also publishes downloadable curriculum guides and runs multi-day in-person trainings for national networks [source: midwest-academy].
A campaigner reaches for it when training new organisers in the Midwest Academy tradition, when designing a community-organising curriculum, or when recruiting for a US-organising role through the Academy’s job board. The curriculum travels - the strategy chart and cutting-the-issue are taught in organising programmes worldwide [source: midwest-academy]. Treat as link-only. [source: midwest-academy]
Use it for
A campaigner uses Midwest Academy to gain the tools needed to turn passion into actions that build power and achieve progressive change. [source: midwest-academy] The organization’s training focuses on the skills and strategies required to build powerful organizations that win victories for communities and advance the movement for justice. [source: midwest-academy] Additionally, the job board helps campaigners find organizing positions or recruit staff for their own campaigns. [source: midwest-academy]